Gray, city deserve credit for cleanup

In response to a July 23 letter: The conditions on Old Georgetown Street that I started to correct 14 years ago were the result of private property owners creating the “dump” behind large wooden fences for decades.

By the time I moved here, those owners had passed away. If not for code enforcement and the city’s help, I could not have done what I did. Without Mayor Jim Gray’s help and his administration’s reforms in correcting prior administrations’ neglect of “poorer” areas of downtown, our neighborhood would not be the gem it is today.

In fact, without the support of the reforms of the Gray administration to code enforcement processes, I would not be here. There are rules to protect property rights, and they must be respected even if the property is a nuisance. The city would cut the weeds in the spaces visible to the public and dun the recorded owners (deceased) for the costs. When the money owed to the city in back taxes became large enough, it would force a sale.

My mother, a lifelong Republican, told me Gray was the only Democrat she had ever voted for in her 94 years on Earth, and if she was alive today, she would be writing this letter herself.

Embrace kids, not guns

Congrats to the Herald-Leader for its recent front-page reporting of America’s real national emergency — gun violence (“12 months, 1,200 deaths”, Feb. 17). Who could possibly read that article and see the list of almost 1,200 names of children who have died by gun violence in our country in one year since the Parkland, Fla. school shooting and not be horrified into taking action to end such horror? Yet, our state legislature passes bills which make it easier to access and carry guns. Our national Congress does nothing to stem our country’s shameful gun violence against all citizens, but most especially against our children. In fact, they pass legislation that prevents the Centers for Disease Control from studying and reporting the epidemic of gun violence in America.

People of America, we are the problem because we embrace the Second Amendment instead of our country’s children. Your child or mine could be on next year’s list. We must make our voices heard. Our newspaper has very effectively reported the facts, now what do we do, work for an end to gun violence or turn our backs to our nation’s children?